Gas and power industries must coordinate – stakeholders

• Gas industry representatives say sector must pursue integrated planning for efficient energy transition
• This means focus must shift from competing against power to how to balance renewables and hard-to-abate sectors
• European Commission must focus on necessary gas infrastructure investments in next mandate

BRUSSELS (ICIS)–The gas industry needs better integrated planning with the electricity sector to achieve the energy transition and ensure efficient and cost-effective infrastructure investments, stakeholders said on 18 April.

Discussing the outlook for gas in 2040 and beyond, panellists at the Eurogas annual conference in Brussels discussed the steps needed in the EU’s next political cycle to support a shift to renewable gases.

Tatiana Marquez Uriarte, a member of European energy commissioner Kadri Simson’s cabinet, said the conversation had shifted from how to use gas as a transition fuel to how to use renewable fuels to balance electrification.

The next European Commission will need to focus on adjusting infrastructure to use biomethane and hydrogen, she said, and handle the decentralised production of these gases.

The viewpoint is similar to ongoing discussions in the power sector, where the urgency of upgrading networks, led to the release of the Commission’s grid action plan in November 2023. There is particular focus on distribution grids for the volumes of renewable energy they will carry.

Marquez Uriarte said renewable gases such as biomethane would be locally produced and injected into the distribution grids, which meant upgrades and investments were required.

“It is clear that we need to decarbonise big time and […] we need to have an integrated planning in order to make sure that we are not building parallel infrastructure,” said Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of industry group SolarPower Europe.

Egbert Laege, CEO of Germany’s SEFE, told the conference that the company was trying to break the chicken-and-egg question around infrastructure by starting to invest the billions of euros required.

This means the investment would be done this decade and the infrastructure ready when biogas and hydrogen will be ready for transport.

Both Hemetsberger and Laege called for policymakers and industry to take decisions on technologies in order to bring clarity for investors.

“We have very much been thinking of electricity and gas systems as separate, and we urgently need to stop that, because I think it is very clear the green transformation will be predominantly driven by green electrons,” Laege said.

This would allow the gas industry to learn how to support the transition, clarify where to invest and align infrastructure plans.